How To Solve Rubik Cube

Solving a Rubik's Cube Basics Each piece of a Rubik's Cube has exactly one position it can be in (relative to the rest of the cube or it's adjacent pieces) when the cube is in a solved state. For instance, any edge piece can only ever have exactly two specific corner pieces surrounding it, the two corners that also contain the same two colors as the edge piece.

No!

Yes!

In solving the cube we will use a standard methodology, or pattern/sequence, to orient each piece of the cube: Top corners, top edges, bottom corners, bottom edges, middle edges. Step 1: Top Corners For illustrative purposes, we will select Red as our starting, top face color. After this step, our cube will look like this:

The areas showing white are of no concern on this step. Note that the colors along the edges of the red face have matching colors, too (in this picture green and yellow, blue and white are matching on the unseen sides.) First, orient the cube so the red center piece is on top. It may be that one or more of the red corners are already in place. This is good. If not, locate any corner piece that has red on it. Preferably we will find a red corner piece on the bottom layer. Our goal is to move that piece up to the top layer, ending with the red side facing up, matching the center piece:

Our first goal is to orient the corner piece directly below the position it belongs in on the top layer:

If this is the first corner piece we are moving into the top layer, it's as easy as turning the right face up, which will yield the result in the previous picture:

In the following illustration, the front left corner can only house the piece that has both red and green colors on it (and subsequently white on the unseen right face.) The corner piece toward the right back can only hold the piece that has both red and yellow colors on it (as well as blue for the back face.)

Find another red corner piece and position it underneath the corner where you want to move it. In this case we will rotate the cube to the left and solve the other corner piece that has red and yellow on it's sides. How you move that corner up will depend on the way the piece is facing. The remaining three corner piece will be solved in the same manner: Red facing forward:

Red facing right:

Red facing down:

Step 2: Top Edges Our cube should now look like this:

Our next step is to move the four red edge pieces into position. Pick an edge piece you want to move into position and find it in the cube. We will focus on the red and yellow piece, which in the above picture goes between the two corner pieces toward the right. If this piece is in one of the four top edge positions between the red corners already, skip it and pick another color for now. Eventually that piece will be moved out when the correct piece is moved in. If the red and yellow piece is along the middle layer of the cube, we want to move it into position like so:

The edge piece essentially has to be move a quarter turn up into position.

Do this sequence of moves:

Resulting in one edge of the red side being completed:

If the original orientation of the red/yellow edge piece is opposite than pictured, it's easy enough to do the sequence of moves in the exact opposite direction (mirror image.) If you find your yellow/red piece on the bottom side of the cube, there are two possibilities for it's orientation: red showing, or yellow showing. Depending on the situation, do either of the following sets of moves. Note that we have moved the orientation of the cube so that yellow is facing forward. Red showing :

Yellow showing (red facing down):

Repeat the above steps for the remaining three red edge pieces. Step 3: Bottom Corners The entire red side should be solved now, with the adjacent edges also in the correct order:

Our next step, the remaining bottom corners, is itself a two step process. First, we will position the corner pieces, disregarding their orientation. Then, we will use a sequence of moves to rotate the corners until they are facing the correct sides.

On a standard Rubik's Cube, the color opposite red will be orange. Normally at this point I will look at the bottom corners and find pieces that are in the correct position relative the the orange face, but not necessarily turned in the correct direction. In the above picture, you know that the corner piece that belongs in the front right position will have yellow and blue colors on it (in addition to the orange) because the red, blue and yellow corner piece is directly above it. Find the red/blue/yellow piece along the bottom slice of the cube and orient it so that it is directly below the red/yellow/blue piece:

Blue is facing down. We are not yet concerned with orientation.

Now look at the other three bottom corners. Are any of them in the correct position? Remember, we are not concerned with the orientation of the pieces, only their position directly below their counterparts on the top (red) face. If you're lucky, the other yellow/green or blue/white corner piece will be in the correct position. If you're really lucky, all four pieces will be correctly positioned and you can move on to the next step. In all likelihood you will have to move some pieces around. Rotate the cube so that the two bottom corners you want to swap are facing the front. You will have to do this sequence a maximum of two times to orient the other three corners. More often than not two corners will be correctly positioned and you will only have to do this sequence one time:

Once your bottom corners are in position, they need to be rotated into their correct orientation. Because of some mathematical principles of a Rubik's Cube that are beyond my comprehension, there are only eight ways the bottom corners can be oriented while the top side is solved. One of these patterns is the solved pattern, so we obviously do not have to concern ourselves with that. Following are the seven remaining patterns. The edge colors represent the orange pieces that are not facing downward. Note that these, of course, are from the bottom view of the cube:

1

2

6

7

3

4

5

The upper left corner in these pictures represents the front left corner of the cube when the finished red side is facing up. For example, here is how the cube should look when you have patterns 1 and 5, respectively:

1

5

Once you have the cube oriented correctly in your hands, as outlined in the seven pattern diagrams above, the following sequence will rotate three of the corners counter-clockwise, leaving the upper left (in the diagrams) or front left (in real life) corner piece alone:

Note that pattern one is the 'end game' pattern. Every time you solve the Rubik's Cube, the bottom corner pattern will eventually end up like number 1. Pattern number 2 leads directly to pattern 1, so you can count on doing the sequence of moves twice in rapid succession if you end up with pattern 2. Unless your cube ends up with pattern 1 right away, you will have to do this sequence of moves more than one time, orienting the cube in the correct way in regards to the seven patterns after each sequence. You will never have to repeat the sequence of moves more than three times. Step 4: Bottom Edges Your cube should now look like this:

Front view.

Bottom view.

The next step is to move the bottom four edge pieces (orange) into position, thus completing the upper and lower slices. Orient your cube so that the orange side is facing up. Find any orange piece that is in the middle slice of the cube and position it thusly:

In this case the orange/blue piece needs to be moved 'up' a quarter turn.

Do the following sequence of moves:

The orange and blue piece should now be in position, while keeping the red side in tact:

Repeat the same steps for the remaining three orange edge pieces. It may be that the edge pieces are oriented differently that in the above diagrams. It should be easy enough to mirror the moves to position the edge piece in the opposite direction. If you find that there are no more orange pieces in the middle layer, but the orange side is not correctly solved, you can use the above sequence of moves to move an incorrectly positioned edge piece out of the top/orange layer.

Step 5: The middle layer Your cube should now look like this, with the red and orange sides solved, and their adjacent edges correctly matching:

The next step is to position the center pieces so that they match up to their already solved edges:

Rotate the cube so that the middle, unsolved slice is vertical (red and orange sides will be on the left and right):

Next, look at the remaining four edge pieces around the center slice of the cube. Our first order of business is to put them into their correct position, without any regard to their orientation. Most of the time you will have at least one edge piece that is in the correct position. If all four edge pieces are not in the correct position, then don't worry about where you start in the next sequence of moves. If all four pieces are in their correct positions, then skip to the next step. If you find you have exactly one piece in the correct position (again, not caring about orientation) rotate the cube around so that this piece is in the front, top position:

or

Do the following sequence of moves:

Now look at the edges in the middle slice. Are they all in position yet? The above sequence moved the remaining three pieces around the cube. You may have to perform this sequence twice to get all four edge pieces in position. Once the four middle slice edge pieces are in position, you may have to 'flip' them around. Unflipped or 'disoriented' pieces will always come in pairs. You may need to flip all four using the following sequence of moves twice. Usually only two pieces will need to be flipped. In rare cases the cube will be solved at this point and you won't have to worry about it! Position the cube so that the two edge pieces you need to flip are on the bottom of the cube, oriented vertically:

Front view.

Bottom view.

The following sequence of moves will flip the two edge pieces on the bottom:

Once you have all the middle pieces flipped, you're done! Wasn't that easy?

Advanced Tips When positioning (swapping) the bottom corners, you may get into a situation where none of the corners really line up, but you have two pairs of corners that need to be swapped. The following sequence will swap the position of the front two corners, as well as the back two corners, all at the same time:

When doing the 'rotation' sequence on the bottom corners, ending up with pattern 2 will require you to do the rotation sequence twice in a row. As an alternative, you can do the sequence of moves backwards, in reverse order:

When 'flipping' the final edge pieces on the middle slice, you may find that you need to flip two edges that are on opposite edges (as opposed to adjacent.) You can either do the flipping sequence twice, or turn the bottom face 180 degrees to orient the edges to be flipped so that they are across from each other on the same face. Then after you flip them, turn the bottom face back 180 degrees to finish the cube. When doing the bottom edges, you can save some time by not finishing the top side. A trick I use is to only solve three of the top edges. Then when you are moving the bottom edges into position, move the 'gap' from the top side under the bottom edge piece you are solving for. On the very last bottom edge piece, you can then move the top piece into that position so that when you move the bottom edge in, it will complete the top side at the same time.